Not every student’s contributions to his or her classmates can be measured by letters on a report card.

For their second award ceremony of the school year, administrators with Dowagiac Union High School recognized a group of 23 freshmen who exemplified this fact Thursday morning.

Organizers with the school’s Youth Experiencing Success program handed out certificates to students who were nominated by instructors for their performance this year in the classroom. Unlike other YES ceremonies, which reward students purely for their academic achievements, the recipients of Thursday’s awards were selected not just for their classwork, but for their attitudes and accomplishments, said high school student advocate Doug Pearson.

“Many of them are not students who get all As or Bs, but they are hard working, and are a positive influence in their classrooms,” Pearson said. “Some of them have made great improvements to their grades since the beginning of the year.”

Thursday’s ceremony — originally scheduled to take place in December before it was canceled due to a snow day — was supported by employees with the Dowagiac Pizza Hut, who provided coupons for a free personal pan pizza to the students. While store manager Stephanie Zielke was unable to attend the ceremony in person, she sent hand-written messages to each of the freshmen, which Pearson handed out during the ceremony.

“It was a nice personal touch for the students,” Pearson said.

Pizza Hut has been a longtime supporter of the YES program, and was the first business to join the initiative when it launched in April 2013, Pearson said.

Now supported by several local businesses, including McDonald’s, Saylor’s Pizza, Burger King, Little Caesar’s and C. Wimberley Automotive, the YES program recognizes freshman, sophomore and junior students for their accomplishments throughout the school year. Earlier in the school year, the program recognized 47 freshmen for earning all As or Bs on their report cards for the first marking period.

Local businesses interested in sponsoring future YES events may contact Pearson at dpearson@dowagiacschools.org.

Honored Thursday were:

Jacob Beach

William Brock

Dashawn Brooks

Jamal Bryant

Jewon Cannon

Kole Checkley

Cassie Gross

Nicole Harley

Hayley Haskins

Drew Jarvis

Gavin Judd

Adrian Lee

Adam Lindsey

Angel Luthringer

Jordan McConnell

Makayla Mellema

Matt Mosier

Harley Northrop

Ben Owen

Lamberto Paredes

Vanessa Victoria

Skylan Whitaker-Baham

Taquanna Williams